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Understanding verbal communication in a team

Guys...I hesitate to introduce this topic, what with the way some of our
recent threads have deteriorated. However, I have a legitimate issue that I
think is appropriate for this forum. Please let's keep it professional and
techwriter-specific.

I just started a new gig last week, which makes me the new kid around here.
Of the team that I am part of, I am the only one who speaks English as my
primary language.

That's not the problem.

The problem is that while each person (there are 7 people on the
team...manager, application 2 SMEs, 2 database SMEs, 1 network
infrastructure SME, and me, the writer-SME) can be understood with minimal
effort, one of them has such a strong accent that less than 10% can be
understood even with dedicated effort.

The manager is aware of this problem, and in the long term, may be a problem
for the SME. However, until then, it is a problem for me and if I can work
out how to better communicate him, it may eliminate some of the problem for
him too.

I don't have a specific question...just looking for ways that other people
have addressed this.

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